Chronological Order of Hannibal Lecter Books

About Hannibal Lecter:

Hannibal Lecter is one of the famous villains of all time. He is a fictional character made by a famous best seller novel writer, Thomas Harris. Lecter has made his first appearance in 1981 at the thriller novel Red Dragon as one of the greatest psychiatrist who eats human fleshes, otherwise known as a cannibalistic serial killer. He was born in Lithuania in 1933 to a wealthy aristocratic family. He has a historic family background of cannibalism and blood drinking people.

Lecter has a sister named Mischa who was born in 1939. As siblings, they formed a strong and affectionate bond. Their family left their estate to live somewhere in the forest to escape a friend. Three years later, little did they know, their family died in a war by a German Bomber attempting to disable a Soviet tank. They were later on held as captive and hostage by the looters. Mischa was cannibalized and Lecter managed to escape his death but he was extremely traumatized by his sister’s death and became mute. Lecter has a strong faith in God before but was later shattered by the even. Thereafter, he really believed that there was no real justice in this world.

He wandered the forest as the looters fled. He was returned by Soviets when they see him wandering the forest. Their castle became an orphanage for young children like him. He bullied, insulted and hurt others as an effect of his tragedy.

After being an orphan, he was schooled at Lycee and graduated early. He then became the youngest person that has been admitted into a medical school in France. He graduated with a degree in medicine at Johns Hopkins Medical Center in Baltimore Maryland. He settled in Baltimore and established psychiatric practice there. He became famous and a leading figure in his field and he even became a world-renowned brilliant clinical psychiatrist.

Due to the implications of the tragedies he had experience in the past; his psychopathic behaviour never departed his mind. Combined with his stature and knowledge of being a psychiatrist, he still continued to kill people and eating them after. He is not just seeking revenge but also executing his so called “judgement” on other people that doesn’t treat him nicely. He performs cannibalism in all his victims.

A total of 28 victims were made by Lecter, eight in Europe, nine in the Baltimore area, 5 during his escape and six later on.

Characteristic of Lecter

Lecter does not pertain to a certain individual or specific person as Red Dragon stated. Lecter is a pure psychopath as claimed on the movie The Silence of the Lambs; however, he was regarded as a sociopath on the novel version. He was traumatized in Lithuania in 1944 when he witnessed a tragic death of his beloved younger sister, Mischa, by murder and cannibalism. A witness also says that Lecter abruptly ate his sister as well. His addiction to pathology grew after this event.

He was always portrayed as a civilized and sophisticated person who loves art, music and cuisine. He was frequently shown as someone who prepares gourmet meals from the flesh of his victims. One of his famous examples is in The Silence of the Lambs movie where he ate a liver with beans and nice Chianti (a wine product in Chianti region). Rudeness is one of the major factors why he kills and eats people; he is deeply and most often offended by it. And thus he was called Hannibal.

Lecter was described by a protagonist in The Silence of the Lambs named Clarice Starling as small, sleek and a wiry strength in his hands and arms. He also has a condition called polydactyl, a rare disease in which the middle finger is duplicated. On the film Hannibal, he performs a series of plastic surgery on his face and later on removed his extra middle finger. He has maroon eyes, white teeth and a dark slicked-back hair with a widow’s peak. His sense of smell is like a dog that’s keen. An example of this keen sense of smell is when he was able to identify the perfume that was used by a person through plate glass window.

Hannibal Lecter on novels

He made his appearance on the back story of the book Red Dragon when he was consulted by an FBI profiler about a series of killings without recognizing that Lecter was the only culprit on the murder. Red Dragon is a novel of Thomas Harris, it was published in 1981. This was the first novel to feature Harris’ character as Dr. Hannibal Lecter.

The second appearance of Hecter was on the novel Silence of the Lambs where he assisted an FBI agent in catching a known serial killer. Silence of the Lambs was also a novel by Thomas Harris which was first published in 1988. The novel also featured Lecter along with special agent Clarice Starling. This novel was awarded by Bram Stoker Award as Best Novel in 1988 and was also nominated on 1989 as World Fantasy Award. Hecter also appeared on the novel Hannibal. He was portrayed as a museum curator and had an alias of Dr. Fell.

After the success of Hannibal Lecter on the novels where he was featured, film adaption happened. In 1986, the novel Red Dragon was adapted into a film by Michael Mann as Manhunter. It was later released on VHS by the time of 1998. The Silence of the Lambs novel had been adapted also into film by the time of 1991. By the time of 2001, Hannibal novel was adapted where the ending is revised. Red Dragon was adapted again by the time of 2002, but this time it’s not under the name of Manhunter anymore but rather on its original title. In 2006, the novel Hannibal Rising was adapted also. All of the novels that featured Hannibal Lecter were adapted into movies and films. Both the novel and film have received too many general negative reviews due to its graphic content and visual representation, as well as the plot itself.

In February 2012, Hannibal has been given a series order by NBC. It was a television adaptation of the novel Red Dragon which was written and produced by a well know producer, Bryan Fuller. The pilot episode of Hannibal was aired on NBC last April 4, 2013 and still amends the original continuity of the story as narrated in the novel.

Master of the standalone thriller genre, Shari Lapena, is back. Author of The Couple Next Door and A Stranger in the House, An Unwanted Guest is the latest novel by Shari. It takes place in a cozy mountain lodge in Winter where various people are staying for a romantic getaway. A blizzard cuts off the power and any contact with the outside world so everyone settles in for the long haul. Then a guest dies. And another. Knowing Shari's other books, this should be one we'll be reading late into the night. For more details or to pre-order, visit our Shari Lapena page.

Recommendations

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MISSING A BOOK?

I do my best to make sure the book lists are complete and current, but due to human or machine error while attempting to keep 3000+ authors up to date, the occasional book can be missed or will be listed under an alternate title. If you see one missing just send me an e-mail below. Thanks!

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Featured Series

Our book series of the month is the Will Robie Series by David Baldacci. If you like Mitch Rapp, Jack Reacher, Jason Bourne etc then you'll love the Will Robie series. These are page turners to the max too and Baldacci knows how to keep you going all night long!

Featured Author

Bill Wenham is the author of various book series including The Inspector Charrington Mysteries and the Inspector Bruce Mysteries. He just started writing in his 80s to follow a life long dream. It’s an amazing story and the books he has written are pretty great too – his passion really shines through. Read more about Bills books.

Did You Know…

In her mid thirties Enid Blyton went through some crisis in her life which included the death of her father. This troubled her emotionally and she began to show signs of instability. She started post marital affairs and in 1941 divorced her husband to marry Kenneth Fraser, a man she had met while she was still with her first husband. However she remained in her second marriage for the rest of her life.